Fortes Calces, The Strong Gears WIP

[DiggeryK]

The Fortes Calces
WIP

I'll just let you know that this is obviously WIP, in case you didn't get that, and that I want this chapter to be very open to outside influence, from you guys. But until I can find the time to write a codex, it'll all just be added onto bit by bit. I'll give you the essentials of the Fortes Calces, what I've written already, then check in sometime later to update with some hopefully useful stuff to slap in here. All of the unprofessional parentheses will be removed over time, but will stick around for now so I can just say something, and not start a fragmented paragraph to get a small point acrossPS, I need ideas for tags, so feel free to help pout in that area as well.

 

 

• Unknown founding (thought to be one of the first nine foundings, but could easily be the 21st)
• Chapter World: Isen, in the Fortes system (see below)
• Fortress Monastary: WIP(accepting possible names)
• Gene-seed: Unknown (Possibly Iron Hands or Salamanders, but will remain officially unknown.)
• Chapter Colors: White and dark purple (looking for paint equivalents. Skull white and Liche Purple, maybe?)
• Non codex compliant

FUN FACTS:

• Have taken to reason and secularity, and do not follow the imperial cult. (I've started reading the Horus Heresy novels.)
• Prefer ranged attack and defense, but are still deadly up close.
• No psykers of any form, other than the required astropaths and navigators, who are kept distances from the pariahs of the chapter.
• Extremely isolasionist, at odds with the inquisition even more than would be expected.
• High preference to machines, with a couple extra tanks and dreadnoughts, but nothing crazy.
• Rather skilled in defense, keeping their chokepoint sufficiently choked.
• Exceptionally interested in record keeping.
• Apothecaries and Techmarines are praised, and prefered

FLUFF:
The chapter is isolationist, and likes to keep secrets. One of these secrets is calling the imperium out on the emperor not actually being a god (but not out loud) This has lead to habitual hate for both the Ecclesiarchy and the Inquisition. Every marine is trained with forging, and they must make their own armor before being a full space marine. The chapter is unusual, and contains a high percentage (6-8%?) of marines with the Pariah gene  with the heightened number of pariahs, there are no psykers allowed within the chapter. No librarians, but keeping records is something they care about. Techmarines and Apothercaries are a step up, and there are fewer assault marine squads.

Ranged combat, fortress defense, war machines, machinery, non codex compliant, about 12 companies, a VERY pure gene stock, home-made weaponry and armor, no psykers, more pariahs, and possibly a few American accents slapped in there as well.

 

Filler space, remember it's a work in progress
Home system (I actually had this worked out ahead of time. Expect above average results)

 

The Fortes System

 

The Fortes system lies on the border between the two segmentum of Ultima and Tempestus. It lies between two border sectors. It is a chokepoint being a system that borders two sectors, almost perfectly. There are systems relatively close on the east and west, large distances separate it from northern and southern systems. The a system nearby to Fortes' east holds an Armoury Planet, which is a high priority target for xenos. Fortes' role as a chokepoint has helped to defend this Armoury planet.

The planets below are listed in order of distance from the local star.

Avall - Barren Planet

 

Nothing more than a spherical rock, Avall only serves useful for Fortes Calces training. Avall is too close to the sun and is too small to have developed any truly useful purpose.

 

Varme - Fief world

A large desert planet, with a few mountain ranges and no above ground water. The entire planet is some shade of tan or brown. Varme is among some of the hottest, yet habitable of desert planets.

Human settlements are sporadic and isolationist. What few towns there are are situated above or at underground springs. Every settlement is entirely self sufficient, and strongly prefer to keep to themselves. Most cities ar on or near the surface, with temperature sensitive buildings further underground.The populace of  Varme is actually a bit diverse, because of the hermit like nature of the people. The two largest cities lie on the two magnetic poles of Varme, and maintain minimal contact with each other. These two cities contain the majority of all munitions and armor production factories.

 

Every city manages a small, independent army, rarely larger than a couple hundred at any one time. Every soldier is trained on the dangerous desert surface, where soldiers learn to fight optimally under the worst of desert conditions. Soldiers will cover themselves with tan or other bland, bleached colors. Full helmets are a must, and contain ventilation and ocular aid for the wearer. The armor is also designed to protect against heat, both the dry heat of the desert, and the dangerous flames of weaponry. Varmen soldiers prefer lasguns and flamers, with the occasional melta or bolt pistol. Ranged combat is prefered, as even the hardiest soldiers won’t fare well when left in the sun for too long. Soldiers are trained in melee combat, but don't bother with anything more than a bayonet and a combat knife.

 

Isen - Chapter homeworld

Isen is an ice world, smaller than Varme, with nothing save for frozen plains and grey, monotone mountains. Despite being frozen, Isen has is very active geothermally. The planet is entirely devoid of life, save for the Fortes Calces, and their numerous defenses.

 

Stor - Gas giant

Read the title. Literally nothing to help serve the Emperor.

 

 

Okay, please feel free to help me out here. I'm looking more for information to include, and possibly formatting. the words above were just copy/pasted from google docs.

 

I fixed the nasty HTML thing. Quality has been lost as well. I'll work on it later. *koff*

[Veteran Sergeant]

The one thing that usually comes to mind with using Latin names for things in 40K is that until Forge World decided to rename the Space Sharks (but FW writers are quite predisposed to special snowflakism and are really one step up from fan-fiction writers when it comes to their in-house Chapters) there are literally no official chapters that do this. Why? Because Gothic isn't actually Latin. But more importantly, the names are the same, regardless of what language they are in.

 

So if Fortes Calces means Strong Gears, then that's the name of the chapter. Because All Fortes Calces is, is what "Strong Gears" is, in Gothic, and then translated back to Latin.

 

Basically, even if you call them the Anatinus Iratos, the chapter is still the Irate Platypi.

 

No real opinion on the Pariah thing, but curious as to why.

 

Not sure about the destruction of the gas giant. I mean, it serves no purpose to the Emprah, but destroying it will expend the Emprah's munitions. Why bother?

[Demus Ragnok]

Well from what I've read psykers are very rare, like one in million.

 

Pariahs are exponentially more rare.

 

So there will need to be some strange something in the recruiting pool to account for the astronomically high number of pariahs in one chapters recruiting pool.

[Prefect Apollyon]

Roughly half of the Chapter are Pariahs?

 

You'd be lucky to find one on a heavily congested hive world! They are stupidly rare. And they're either killed by the rest of the population for freaking them out, or are snapped up by the Culexus temple.

 

Anymore than 2% and I'm struggling to believe it. That's the key to making a DIY Chapter; Believability.

[Iron Hands Fanatic]

Roughly half of the Chapter are Pariahs?

 

You'd be lucky to find one on a heavily congested hive world! They are stupidly rare. And they're either killed by the rest of the population for freaking them out, or are snapped up by the Culexus temple.

 

Anymore than 2% and I'm struggling to believe it. That's the key to making a DIY Chapter; Believability.

 

True, but a bit of explanation mixed with misdirection can bypass this somewhat.

 

For example: my chapter, The Persecutors, is entirely made up of psychic Blanks (a less extreme strain of the Pariah gene). HOWEVER - they are a 21st Founding chapter - their geneseed was manipulated by the AdMech to breed astartes particularly resistant to Chaos (like an alternative to the Exorcists) - but their geneseed is all horribly corrupted (CURSED founding) - the death rate from implantation alone is brutal. Also means when they suffer losses (which is frequent - again, cursed) its difficult to replace them - they're regularly below full strength. Oh and they're also complete tools of the Inquisiton - a sect of Inquisitors sancioned their creation off the back of the 21st founding in secret to fulfill their personal vendetta against other factions of the Inquisition - and they are shunned by other Imperials because of a 2 century insurrection they were involved in soon after their founding due to said Inquisitors.

 

@DiggeryK: It is possible to make Pariahs a big part of your Chapter - but without an explanation you'd probly only get away with max 5%. However, make them really important - a mysterious fraternity within the higher echelons of the Chapter - maybe make their actualy identities unknown - masked, nameless, malevolant. Everyone can tell they're Pariahs, but they are  never seen beneath their armour.

 

Plus - make it grimark, make it brutal. The less easy a time your Chapter has, the more people will believe their quirks - its all about balance. The more advantages your chapter has above the norm, the less convincing it will be. However, if you counter these with disadvantages, they will be more beleivable - and not having a Librarius isn't really a proper disadvantage - the Templars do it out of choice, and they certainly aren't a weak Chapter.

 

If in doubt, kill some of them. In horrible ways. Put their purity in quiestion. Then kill some more. Rinse & repeat.

[Gorkimedes]

If you just want the anti daemon / psyker angle you could do something like the exorcists, not natural born pariahs but artificially resistant.

[DiggeryK]

Well, I've finally come out of hibernation, ready to spread more of the emperor's will to blah blah blah.

 

I'm genuinely surprised with the constructive responses I've recieved, considering what little information I've delivered. I'll answer some thoughts and comments, and I plan to edit the original post to include a bit more information.

 

@Veteran Sergeant: Fortes Calces just seems a bit manlier, because Strong Gears sounds a bit immature. Regardless, my lack of knowledge of any language other than rudimentary highschool spanish, coupled with my use of google translate has given me the name I have now. As for the Pariahs, it stems from my real dislike and apathy for magic. Every game I play I'll take steel and grit over pansy robes and magic tricks.

 

@ Demus Ragnok/Prefect Apollyon: Yes, pariahs are exceedingly rare. I'm in heavy thought of reducing the number of warriors with this gene, but the chapter will still retain an abnormally high number of blanks, pariahs, and those with a distrust of sorcery.

 

@Iron Hands Fanatic: There is still much to be fleshed out, but the introverted nature of the chapter also lends itself to many of the warriors found within. They are always at odds with the inquisition, as they won't answer any questions. I will lower the number of pariahs, but slap some taint into the geneseed, lending to a 7-8% of warriors with this condition.

 

Thanks for the help, and expect some obvious changes to be made. I'm open to lore Ideas, as I'm still just laying down the facts.